CTA to improve Brown, Purple Line tracks

Brown Line by the Merchandise Mart

David Klobucar

2/4/2004-- CTA elevated trains were running on schedule Wednesday morning following a two-train accident that left a reported 33 people injured during the Tuesday evening rush. A CTA Brown Line train rolls through the area of track just north of the Merchandise Mart near where the accident took...

2/4/2004-- CTA elevated trains were running on schedule Wednesday morning following a two-train accident that left a reported 33 people injured during the Tuesday evening rush. A CTA Brown Line train rolls through the area of track just north of the Merchandise Mart near where the accident took... (David Klobucar)

Some Brown and Purple line riders will see relief from slow zones after work begins next year on a $66 million project to repair track between the Merchandise Mart and Armitage, CTA president Forrest Claypool and Mayor Emanuel announced Tuesday.

The project coincides with a new labor agreement with iron workers, who will begin the track work in the spring. Construction is expected to last into 2014.

Though the Brown Line underwent a major overhaul a few years ago, the work focused on stations and platforms, not track, the CTA said.

The CTA said it doesn't anticipate closing stations during next year's work. In the meantime, the CTA continues to replace the wood on Brown Line platforms that was put into place during the Brown Line overhaul. This new wood has been weather-proofed unlike the previous wood.

There have been some inconveniences for riders during this wood replacement including entrance closures and slow trains in addition to the current slow zones, which plague more than one fifth of Brown Line track.

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